On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 7:42 PM, Alan B. Pearce wrote: > >Is there another open source programmer around? or better one with USB > >support? > > Well Olin recently made his USB programmer source open for download, so if > there is a specific requirement you have, then that would be eminently > hackable. > Olin's programmer does not really belong to open source because of the license limit. It is also not easy to hack as well. EasyProg's source codes have been available for years and nobody has even write the host software for it under Linux. The EmbedInc programming specification is also available long ago and only one very old attempt was made to use it with Wisp628 (http://www.philpem.me.uk/elec/pic/easyisp/). PICkit 2's source codes are open as well. But it is not open source either as the license limits the usages to Microchip product. And hacking a programmer is actually difficult for PICs. Even though PICkit 2's source codes are available, it is not really that easy to understand it thanks to the complexity of Microchip programming specifications. So far none of the alternative "open source" PIC programmers can beat PICkit 2 with its host software (the console version pk2cmd has been ported to Linux by Jeff Post). http://forum.microchip.com/tm.aspx?m=331582 Even with the PICkit 2 source codes, the attempt to write a pure GPLed host software has not been achieved Jeff Post's pk2 and Nicolas Hadacek's piklab). There are many open source programmers. But very few aims to be an universal one. Avrdude is targeting for Atmel MCUs. Open_OCD are mainly targeting ARM based MCUs. Xiaofan -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist